Advances in technology have increased the potential of various actors to collaborate in improving governance functions. The main focus of this study is the utilization of technologies in opening civil society, increasing transparency and government accountability by NGOs, startups and new forms of civil society organizations. Civic technology sector is comparatively new and usage of the term may vary from researcher to researched. For the purposes of this paper, this working definition has been adopted: platforms and tools enabling citizens to connect and collaborate with each other and with government.
Although there is a wide agreement that civic technologies (e.g. AVINA Foundation, 2015; Baack, 2015; Knight Foundation, 2015; McNutt et al., 2016; Rumbul, 2015) lead to positive effects for society, the projects struggle to sustain active participation and literature within the field is scarce. Understanding what makes such initiatives sustainable could lead to design of technologies that citizens will actually use. To address this wide-ranging explanatory objective, our research design was based on contingency approach to identify commonly recurring settings allowing sustainability of civic technology projects by observing different strategies, structures and behavioral processes utilized by the projects in Lithuania.
To this end, first, we evaluate theoretical achievements and limitations of the civic tech field in order to develop conceptual sustainability framework. Second, mapping activity of Lithuanian civic tech projects is exercised in order to get inventory of projects based on selection criteria (e.g. technologies used, engagement of citizens). Next, selected 65 projects were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively by collecting and reviewing publicly available Internet data from various sources (websites and social media accounts of the projects, activity reports of NGO’s, news media, etc.). From a quantitative perspective, main characteristics and descriptive statistics (e.g. activity status, initiators, number of active members, partners) were analyzed and described. The projects were also analyzed from a qualitative perspective according to the dimensions of the developed conceptual framework.
The evaluation of research data across cases and translation of findings within varied contexts allows to generate a line of argument about the dynamics (factors of emergence, key drivers, and common characteristics) that have led to design of sustainable projects. The research conclusions lead to empirically tested conceptual model of civic technologies sustainability allowing deeper understanding of the complex nature of citizen-centered governance.
D2 - Context, behaviour and evolution: new perspectives on public and non-profit governanc
